


Orange Soda and Calendars

by mlepclaynos



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Jake Peralta/Amy Santiago, F/M, Fluff, Moving In Together, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:47:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26799058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mlepclaynos/pseuds/mlepclaynos
Summary: Jake is moving into Amy's apartment.She loves her organized and clean home and he has never cared about the state of his apartment.But he loved her and she loved him. And now they were going to live together.
Relationships: Jake Peralta & Amy Santiago, Jake Peralta/Amy Santiago
Comments: 12
Kudos: 57





	Orange Soda and Calendars

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! I posted my first story a couple of days ago and since it was more liked than I could have expected, I wrote down this little idea that I had been thinking about. I hope you all enjoy it!
> 
> P.S. - This was written at 2am so please let me know if there are any typos or grammatical errors!

Amy Santiago could only use two words to describe what she was feeling in this moment – terrified excitement.

Today, Jake was moving in with her. Living with her amazing boyfriend had her excited, but she also knew, judging by the state of his desk and apartment whenever she visited, it would be an interesting learning curve for them both. But she was ready – being able to live with him meant more than anything to her and his time in Florida had only reassured her of their decision to move in together. She knew it wouldn’t be easy, but there was no other way she would have it.

Brushing of a piece of lint off her leggings, she took one more look around her apartment to triple check if everything was ready for his arrival. Starting with the ensuite bathroom they had in their room – she paused and smiled at the thought of her room now being their room – she fixed the products set on the counter, hoping he would be happy to see a fancy hair mousse for she had picked up for him. She had seen the state of his apartment and besides his necessities, which obviously included Die Hard DVDs and merch, it seemed like he never treated himself. It seemed hard to believe considering his crushing debt, but her boyfriend was a simple man. Now that he was going to live with her, she had more opportunities to spoil him in any way she could, hence he now had special hair products for his curls because she would do anything to see his excited smile when he discovers new, but very common things (not to mention, she loved running her fingers through his hair whenever they cuddled). Hoping he would have enough space for his things, she saw the towel rack, where she added a towel for him, and shuddered as the thought of what she would do if he brought “towel” with him. Following the thoughts of “towel”, she quickly stepped out of the bathroom, getting the images of that indestructible object out of her head.

She opened her closet for the umpteenth time since this morning and the questions paced through her head again. Was there enough space for his clothes? How would he organize his clothes? Does he even organize his clothes? What about his sneakers?

She never understood his sneaker obsession considering she had 4 pairs of shoes, but she did make sure to get a nice shoe rack set up in the half emptied closet, hoping it would have enough space to hold his beloved sneaker collection.

Next stop was the two nightstands placed on either side of their bed. She knew he always slept on the right side and removed her décor of right nightstand, replacing it with the latest condition of Cosmopolitan, hoping it made up for the alarm clock and small pineapple figurine that were beside it. Running her hand over the bed covers, she walked out of the room with a smile and pink cheeks, remembering his jokes on how they had to break in the mattress to mark his moving in.

Looking down at her watch, he was supposed to arrive in another hour, but she didn’t want to wait anymore. She had been waiting to live with him and start sharing their lives even more, since before he had to go to Florida. For the 6 months he was gone, her apartment that was once her haven, was a reminder of how much she missed him. Maybe it was because he had to leave right when they decided to move in together or because they had spent almost every night together before their discussion, that her life felt so empty when she didn’t end her night snuggled next to him. For every day for 6 months, she had hugged or worn the plaid shirt he had left at her place until she fell asleep thinking about the day he would come back. She had even gotten Gina to give her the spare key to his apartment, as if it would help her feel closer to him when she slept in his bed, the mess he had left behind untouched, to make it feel as though he had never left. Well, everything except his food was untouched, she didn’t want to see the expired orange soda and chips around.

Breaking out of her thought trail as orange soda came to her mind, she wiped off the tears that had fallen onto her cheeks. Orange soda, she chuckled at the thought that such a drink was such a staple in Jake Peralta’s home. And now this was his home. Making the apartment their home meant she had shocked her local grocery store clerk when she purchased a variety of chips and candy, a 2L bottle of orange soda, powdered donuts, and all the staples needed to make nachos in her weekly grocery trip. Although she had picked up his favourites, she made such to compensate with more fruits and vegetables, knowing (hoping) he would give in at some point and give his body some nutrients.

Taking a deep breath, trying not to worry about powdered sugar all over her sparkling kitchen, she fluffed her perfectly paired throw cushions and picked up her book of crossword puzzles. As she almost finished up her crossword, there was a knock on the door. Almost jumping off the couch, she basically ran to the door, her heart beating extra hard knowing this was a big step for them. But a big step in the right direction that made her smile as she opened the door.

Her smile grew wider when she saw his animated excitement visible on his face. She hadn’t seen him all day back in the precinct and now as he stood before, two suitcases by his side and bag thrown over his shoulder. It felt like she had waited for them to share a home for the longest time and knowing she could sleep in his arms for the rest of her life, she stepped forward, engulfing her in his arms within a moment. Taken back by her sudden hug, he instinctively put his arms around her while trying to keep his balance. As she nuzzled into the crook of his neck, the scent of his cologne – the one she gave her comfort while he was gone – surrounded her and she knew this is what home meant. She had been living in an apartment, a simple house, until now, but his presence made it her home.

When she tightened her grip on his hoodie, he rubbed her back slowly, knowing how important this was her. He had thought about being this close to her every day in Florida and knew it had been just as hard for her, if not harder. He had seen the dried up tears on the letter that she had written for him when it had been 6 months since they had seen each other and it only made this moment mean so much than it would have before he left. They had never valued the simple gestures before being separated. He felt like he had taken the small things for granted, like watching her smirk when he set her up to get double letter points in Scrabble, her eye rolling when he told her about his video games, and of course how much she tried to like Die Hard. When they had to quickly get into witness protection, he had no time to take anything that would remind him of his girlfriend except the one picture he kept in his storage unit, but back in the house, it was complete emptiness. While he tried to become Larry, all he could do was think about the things he would have been doing with Amy had they been together in Brooklyn or if they were ever in Florida together (not that Coral Palms was interesting). And now there were together, standing outside their home…the thought of them living together, once again brought a smile on his face. Kissing the top of her head, he softly spoke into her ear.

“Hey…I’m home now Ames.”

Was this what Charles always meant when he said he was melting, she wondered for a moment when she felt herself relaxing in his arms. Her mind was immediately distracted as she looked into his soft eyes, and the temptation to kiss him overtook her. Placing her lips softly onto his, she kissed him and started to move back, making him move with her. As they made it into their apartment, she pulled back with a sly smile on her face.

“Welcome to your new home…” Following the Peralta style of doing things, she dramatically gestured towards the apartment with a serious look on her face before forwarding her arm for him to link his arm in as he walked in, looking around.

“Thank you mil lady, loving the floral and more floral. Wow I really forgot about all the flowers…” He nervously looked around at some of the wallpaper and decorations she had up. He hadn’t been in her apartment since before Florida and his brain must have wanted to forget all the floral in her apartment since it never came to mind when he was constantly daydreaming about her. She giggled and shrugged her shoulders while he shook his head, exaggerating a sigh and placing his bag by her purse rack. As he brought in his suitcases, she helped them move them into their bedroom. As he placed them in a corner, contrary to how he would normally throw them onto the beds of hotels he stayed in, she looked pleasantly surprised in how things were going do far.

“Must say babe, I’m surprised you actually packed. I thought you were going to throw everything into a box last minute.”

“Oh, I most definitely did that. There’s like 3 boxes waiting outside.” He gave her his signature goofy smile before quickly leaving the room to grab his boxes while she rolled his eyes. Some things about Jake Peralta just cannot be changed.

~~~~

They had managed to make a small pile of his boxed belongings and he rummaged through, taking out only what he absolutely needed until tomorrow morning. She had given her the disappointed glare when he didn’t want to unpack, but she had given in easily simply because she was over the moon about having him move in with her. She had dropped the topic but only after he promised to spend tomorrow, their only day off together, organizing his belongings although he had really tried to convince her they could take his stuff out as he needed it.

After getting him settled in, as much as he would let her, she thought it would be nice for him to still feel like he didn’t have to lose some of the stuff he had left behind in his old place and told him she would arrange for dinner. He was curious as to why she wasn’t already trying to make him healthy, but trying not to mess with something good, he shrugged and began setting up for them to watch the first Harry Potter movie. He thought it would be interesting to see how his girlfriend would sit through the movie since she always shushed him when they were watching Die Hard and he commented on anything (almost everything). However, he was in for a surprise himself when she joined him on the couch after their food delivery had arrived and placed a large meat supreme pizza from the newly reopened Sal’s on their coffee table. Faking tears, he had spent 20 minutes talking about Sal’s and how this pizza in their hands was the best pizza in America. It was like she had given a child some candy as she watched him rave about the pizza place, thanking her repeatedly, as if no one had ever cared so much.

Her smile that had formed as she adored him slowly faded thinking about how a pizza made him so happy. It was just like how he had been so ecstatic seeing the small changes she had made in the apartment for him. She tried to remember how many times she had seen him so genuinely happy and relaxed, but it made her frown further realizing she could count the number on her fingers. If she had known the smallest things had made him so happy, she would have offered to drink orange soda with pizza for dinner more often. She knew exactly why these gestures made him so happy, not only had he not had normalcy in his life for the past 6 months, but there was no one who paid such attention to him since his dad left. Her heart felt an ache thinking about how much he craved love but never spoke up about it seriously, because she knew he thought it wasn’t worth it. He thought he wasn’t worth it. But she mentally promised him things would change. She had all the love in her heart for him and she would show that to him, even if she had to live in a messy home full of sugar and video games.

“Earth to Amy! Are you have an out of body experience because of how delicious this pizza is?” His laugh brought her out of her thoughts, and she smiled at him, moving in closer to him. Putting her pizza away, she placed her head on his shoulder, distracting herself from her own thoughts and excusing her spaciness, as she wondered aloud.

“So you only showed up an hour late today, what happened?” He brought the throw blanket over her shoulder while she snuggled closer into him.

“Sorry, but I didn’t plan to make a few stops in between my old place and here. I had some things that needed to be donated, I mean I don’t think we needed two TVs…oh wait, that would have been so cool, we wouldn’t have to worry about what to watch. Should I get my TV back? No that’s crazy, right? Or is it?”

“Jake, relax. We only need one TV.” She tried to hold back her laugh but failed as she adored how he went on blurting out his entire thought process. But her eyes weren’t even paying attention to what he was saying anymore or what he was trying to find on the TV. She watched the dimmed lights and flickering light from the TV made him brought out the features of his face, and she moved herself even closer if it was even possible. He finally looked her way and his soft eyes suddenly reflected a strong desire. Shifting herself from the couch onto his lap, facing him with a smirk on her face as he straddled her in his lap, holding back a breath as she leaned in touching his forehead with her.

“I don’t want to watch TV right now…I want you…” She barely got a whisper in he stopped her sentence with his lips meeting hers. His hands slowly slid down from her hair, stopping at the hem of her t-shirt. He started to play with the waistband of her pajamas before he slipped his cold hands under her shirt, and she bit his lip unable to hold herself back. He lifted her in his arms with ease, their lips never parting as he carried her into their bed, ready to break in their bed.

~~~~

Stirring under the sheets, Amy wanted to hide her face in her pillow like her boyfriend always did. The sun shone past their curtain falling onto her face and she swore she heard some noise coming from the living room. But before she opened her eyes unwillingly, she felt him sitting down on the bed and he must have been the one making noise on a Saturday morning out of all days. She couldn’t complain any further when she no longer felt the sun shining on her after he moved closer to her, kissing her forehead. She felt like a child when he pulled their blanket up to cover her bare shoulders and began gently patting her head, slowly making her go back to sleep. Amidst the million things that seemed to be running in her mind as she thought of everything she needed to get done today and how it was better if she got out of bed, the last thought she had before drifting back into a slumber was her boyfriend was the sweetest.

It only felt like she had gone back to sleep mere minutes ago, but when her alarm blared through the room, she had no choice except to finally get out of bed. Groaning, she turned off the loud noise and opened her eyes to see him mumbling to himself about why anyone needed an alarm on their day off. But as he saw her looking up at him, half asleep, he sat down next to her taking in the rare occasion where Amy Santiago wasn’t prim and proper and didn’t care about it at all.

“Morning sleepyhead!” He placed a kiss on her cheek as she lazily sat up, trying to keep her eyes and covering herself with their blanket as if he hadn’t been the reason for her exhausted state. He didn’t take his eyes off her when she yawned loudly before frowning at him.

“How are you up before me? It’s only 8.” She did a double take towards the clock and was startled into waking up when she realized he had woken up so early. He didn’t even wake up this early when he had important places to work, including but not limited to work, yet here he was looking wide awake, showered and shockingly with a smile at 8am.

“Don’t get used to it, I just wanted to get everything put away my way so we could enjoy our day off.” He ran his hand through her hair trying to straighten it out the way she liked it while she stared him at with a grumpy look on her face.

“Great…” She rolled her eyes with her childish frown consistent on her face as she threw the blanket off herself only to have him cover her with the soft white robe she hadn’t noticed in his hand till now. It was perfect timing because had he waited a moment, she would have been put in a grumpier mood if that was possible if she felt the slightest bit colder than normal. Stumbling towards the bathroom as if she hadn’t slept at all, she didn’t notice there was no mess of their discarded clothes from last night but he couldn’t blame her. The only reason he had been able to function and smile this early was because he had already downed two cups of coffee, and he hadn’t even bothered to add sugar and creamer because that’s how serious he was able to getting this right.

When his phone had woken him up at 6 in the morning, he was ready to abandon his plan to getting set up in his new home. However, when he saw her sleeping on his shoulder in such a deep sleep that his alarm couldn’t have woken her up, his lips curved up without hesitation. He wanted to this for her, he wanted to see her smile and be proud of him. Trying to contribute to keeping their house organized as best as he could or at least getting a head start would at least show her that he wasn’t going to let their home end up in the state as his apartment, which made her cringe every time no matter how much she tried to hide it. He probably would never understand why she thought the organizing process was fun or why it was so important, but he did know it was everything to her, so there was no way he couldn’t make an effort. She had gone above and beyond trying to make the place homely for him, which was visible as soon as he walked in last night. When he saw the kitchen stocked with his essentials, half the books in the TV stand removed for him to place his DVDs and video game consoles, significantly less amounts of flowers even though he teased her about it, she had even moved around her arts & crafts supplies to give him some shelves in the living room, and he couldn’t miss how she had moved a picture of her first day as detective to the side allowing a picture of them to be in the center of her photo wall. He may or may not have wanted to sob like a child looking at that. Is this what Boyle meant when he said he was melting? He just wanted to fall into her arms and thank her for being a part of her life and giving him the privilege of being a part of hers.

Once he started thinking about all she had been doing, he didn’t realize he managed to get up, get showered, and made his own coffee instead of buying one all without wanting to go back to bed, although it was tempting whenever he looked over at his very naked girlfriend comfortably sleeping in the mattress that felt like feathers. He managed to stay focussed despite everything, thinking about the love he had seen her eyes, something he had never experienced before, and he wished that his efforts would be able to show her he felt the same way.

He was brought back to the current moment when he heard the bathroom door open and she stepped out wearing the clothes he had left out for her, the smell of her shampoo trailing with her and he thanked his stars when he saw a much happier and relaxed Amy walking towards him. He had a sense of relief, knowing he had set up his stuff in the bathroom to her liking when she kissed his cheek before walking towards the dresser. He wanted to try and make their bed, but he simply didn’t know how to and there was no way he could not be so distracted by her, and something told him he would never get tired of watching her getting ready in the mornings. He leaned against the bed frame as she dried her hair and put it up in a ponytail, now hoping she would look towards her jewelry, which would happen any moment since there wasn’t a day she didn’t put small studs in her ears. Sure enough, she looked down and to her surprise, there was a new organizer waiting for her. A small little thing he had picked up yesterday, knowing her old one was about to break and wasn’t big enough to hold both her perfumes and his colognes, had earned him an excited I love you as she began to immediately move her things onto the new organizer. He walked out into the kitchen knowing she needed some privacy as she reorganized the dresser to make everything look immaculate again.

As she finished up, she walked out to the smell of pancakes filling their humble abode and her boyfriend wearing a “kiss the chef” apron in true Peralta style. Sitting down at the dining table he pointed to, she was immediately served a steaming cup of coffee with milk which was sure to get rid of any grumpiness she had left in her. She had barely had a chance to say thank you when he placed two plates of pancakes on the table, and a bowl of strawberries next to her plate. She shook her head when he brought out the syrup and butter she knew was going to make her worry about how he managed to live this long without major health concerns. Moving her chair closer to his, she held up a strawberry his way and he gave her a look of disgust that made her laugh before she took another look at the apron he was about to take off. Biting her strawberry, she placed a hand on his chest stopping him and forward giving him a kiss that tasted just like strawberries. Asking him if strawberries were really that bad, she looked proud of herself watching him at a loss of words for once. She knew how to feed her boyfriend his fruits as she watched him blush an embarrassed pink, a rare sight, before he reached over and picked up a strawberry.

Once they had silently finished their breakfast, she looked around trying to notice how if he had added anything to the kitchen, wondering if she had missed anything but to her surprise, there wasn’t any more sugary treats in their kitchen other than what she had brought for him. Her eye did wonder to the sink where there were no dishes besides the plates and cups they had just used, and there was no pancake batter on the counters, well almost, but she didn’t bring up the spot he missed. All she knew was he had tried...for her, and it was more than enough for her. She felt his arms snaking around her waist as he pulled her back into him and placed his head on her shoulder, and she ran her thumb over his hands asking him to stop before she started expecting him to be up super early every morning to make her pancakes and give her kisses. A deep chuckle left him as he parted from her asking her to keep it in her pants since he still wanted her to take a look around to make sure he had done a decent job putting things away.

Rolling her eyes at losing the warmth of being wrapped in his arms, she walked towards the room, dreading to see what would have become of the closet only to stand dumbfounded when he opened it up for her. She almost rubbed her eyes to make she wasn’t dreaming and she had really let Jake Peralta in her home and it was really him standing next to her looking proud of what their shared closet looked like.

“Jake...did you just-” She didn’t even know what to say as her eyes went back and forth between him and the closet. The half empty closet was now filled with a sea of his plaid flannels, hoodies, and leather jacket next to her pant suits and blouses, but he hadn’t just thrown everything anywhere like she had pictured as a worst case scenario. He had gone above and beyond the best-case scenario she had in her head. Her clothes were clearly on the left side while his filled the right side, which was all she expected but he had gone ahead to pull an Amy Santiago.

“You had your clothes sorted by sleeve length then colour, so I tried to do the same thing. Key word is tried. Anywayyyy, I didn’t know how the sneakers should be arranged, so I tried to put them in from my most favourite to least, but it was so hard to pick a favourite. I just decided to do colors, it was easy, but if you-” She hadn’t even looked at the sneakers which matched the organized nature of his clothes. She hadn’t even begun to take it in when he handed her a calendar identical to the one she kept on the wall by the dresser, except it now had his work shifts and important events (such as sneaker launches and Taylor Swift’s birthday) itched under her own writing. As he tried to explain he had to ask Rosa to write down his part of the calendar, since no one could read his writing, and she would have to write his stuff down for him in the future, she couldn’t, in his own words, keep it in her pants anymore.

“Oh Mama…” were the only words she could say before she took his lips with her own, daring to put the calendar away. He chuckled for a moment before moving back away from her, wanting to tease her just a bit more as he started walking backwards out of their room.

“Woah, if the closet and calendar is doing this for you, we should head to the living room. Maybe we can break in that couch.” He winked at her before walking away and she had no choice but to follow him, eyes focussed on the grey sweatpants he was wearing which mocked her further and didn’t hide he was more than ready to destroy her couch.

He was right. It was a short while later, she lay on top of him breathless on the now broken into couch. She didn’t know what finally made her lose control and show what his gestures did to her, but all he knew was that he wasn’t complaining about having to clean or organize ever again. He would continue to make sure his DVDs were all placed in alphabetical order to match the order of her books, he would no longer have tangled wires when he played video games, and he even aligned his Transformers and Die Hard posters symmetrical with her framed photos, and didn’t ever mention her shame cigarettes that were now hidden away with his Taylor Swift CDs.

There were going to be times when she hated the sugar that fell off his powered donuts and gummy candies and he didn’t want to do all the chores that were listed under his name on their weekly chore board, but he was going to make an effort to clean up after himself and she would learn to let go off some of the messes in their home. The apartment was now their home and it couldn’t be a complete mess or a perfectly clean place. It would be their home if there were cups of orange soda next to them as they organized their calendar. 

**Author's Note:**

> So there it is!
> 
> I hope you all liked it! 
> 
> If you could leave a comment or kudos, it would mean so much!
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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